ORONO - Two days before the start of the Hockey East playoffs, Hockey East announced that the late Shawn Walsh earned the league's top coaching performance.

Walsh, who coached at Maine from 1984 to 2001 before he died of renal cell carcinoma, was honored for Maine's NCAA championship in the 1992-1993 season, when the Black Bears finished 42-1-2 and 22-1-1 in Hockey East.

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Dave Wilson's status for the weekend playoff series at Boston University is still up in the air, as of this afternoon. Wilson, a junior goalie, suffered a groin pull last week and watched today's practice from the stands, in sweats. But after practice was over, Wilson worked out alone on the ice in full gear, under the supervision of head athletic trainer Paul Culina.

"It's unlikely that he'll play this weekend but we're still hoping he can recover quick enough to be ready this weekend, " Maine Coach Tim Whitehead said of Wilson, whose last start came Feb. 28 in a 2-1 loss to Vermont. "If this were mid-season, we wouldn't be toying with the possibility but given that this is the playoffs and it's now-or-never, David and Paul are going to do everything they can to get David healthy."

Whitehead said Kyle Solomon, who has sat out the last five games with an ACL sprain, is available for this weekend's best-of-three series at BU.

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One Hockey East player has already decided to test the professional waters. Matt Taormina, Providence's captain this season, signed a tryout contract with the Binghamton Senators, Ottawa's AHL farm team. He scored a goal last night in the Sens' 3-1 win at Portland.

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